


Peace in the Offering

by silveradept



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Contracts, Cooking Alive, Implied/Referenced Past Rape / Non-con, Magical Compulsions, Minor Character Death, Negotiations, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:54:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25761691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: Queen Talia meets the dragon she's supposed to lay with as a peace offering, and immediately sets to negotiating herself into a better agreement with everyone around her. Not everyone can be negotiated with.
Relationships: Ancient Dragon/Queen they lay with for a day each month as a Peace Offering
Comments: 12
Kudos: 15
Collections: Original Works Opportunity 2020





	1. The First Is The Last, The Last Begets The First

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lafoga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafoga/gifts).



Queen Talia had been preparing for this day since her coronation. Staring up at the enormity of the situation before her, she cursed all of the people who had failed to tell her the full truth of what she was about to undertake. 

As she had been courted, and the marriage finalized, there had been whispers of a great bargain and ancient treaties that would be fulfilled. Several of the courtiers of her new kingdom had looked at her with a keener eye than many suitors, before nodding to themselves. When pressed, they would only say that she would be suitable for the marriage arrangement. Her husband-to-be had been very guarded about whatever grand duty she would be required to perform after the marriage, only that the ritual was sacred and necessary for the peace and prosperity of the kingdom.

The place where the ritual was to be enacted was apparently a fair ride from the palace, a cave that had been rumored to be the lair of some great beast in the local legend, but of course, none had seen any creature of size come from the space in decades. If it was supposed to be a shrine to a deity, Talia wondered what sort of divine being would be willing to keep itself in a cave, rather than a temple with clergy and offerings sent daily to keep their favor. Instead, it was apparently a requirement that the Queen come, by herself, and perform this rite that none had been willing to tell her anything directly about. 

Staring up at the size of the dragon now before her, Talia sighed. It was now all too clear that the kingdom had feared none would consent to be married to someone who would be required to make pilgrimage to what looked to be, by her limited understanding, a very old and powerful being. The dragon looked down at her, studying her before finally speaking.

"You must be the new Queen I've been hearing so much about," the dragon said, giving a small but jovial laugh.

"Talia of the Blue Lake. Or, I suppose, Her Majesty, Queen Talia, First of Her Name, Grand Lady of the Seven Sisters, Monarch of the Deep Mountains, and Protector and Friend of the Plains of Everlasting Bounty, if I wanted to be formal," Talia responded sourly, playing a hunch. "Formality says it's nice to meet you, but I'm not sure we've established that, yet. What should I call you?"

"My name was once spoken by those who have long since gone beyond life, but the last queen called my predecessor 'Sir,' and it sufficed," the dragon replied.

"Pfft, no," Talia said, not fully stifling a laugh. "The last time I called someone 'sir' was right after I'd finished throwing them over the side of the ship."

The dragon peered down at Talia, moving a little closer to study her more thoroughly. "Well, at least you're not trying to shiver yourself apart in fear," they said. "Although I'm surprised you don't seem worried I would cook you alive for your decisions."

"Death is preferable to much of what I've already lived through," Talia replied. "After a certain point, it takes effort to care about whether you continue living."

"Hmph," the dragon replied, snorting. "Do you know why you are here?"

"I had an inkling of what might happen, given that the wardrobe I was sent with has barely enough cloth for modesty, but I wasn't expecting a full-on dragon to on the other end of it." Talia said.

"So they have not fully informed you of the bargain that was struck, I presume."

"You presume correctly. All they told me was to wear one of those mostly-nonexistent clothes and be here at the appointed day and time. So if you're going to sacrifice me, or flame me, or eat me, it's probably good to get on with it and say that the next one should be less spirited."

The dragon rumbled their annoyance, the vibration coming through Talia's boots. "Very well, then. If you are so eager to meet your fate, you should at least be informed of what is demanded of you." The dragon lifted a claw and pointed at a human-size door. "You may put all of the belongings you came with in there while I fetch the contract. Do not wander. There is very little that has been constructed for you here."

Talia would have liked to stand still and do nothing on the principle that the dragon's rudeness would get them nowhere, but the rest of her entourage was already hastily scrambling to unload her materials and place them in the indicated room, so that option was not going to happen anyway. The unloading finished before the dragon returned, and with a quick salute, the entirety of her traveling party retreated to the nearest town, saying they would come collect her on the next day and steadfastly refusing to give her any more details about the situation she was in.

Lacking any further thing to do, and not wanting to continue standing in the middle of the great cavern, Talia went into the room that had been designated for her to wait. Some time later, a very good attempt at a person entered the room from the door on the opposite side of the room. The horns were in proportion to the human frame, as was the tail, the clothes fit well and were tailored, and the glasses made for a nice touch to attempt to make things more normal, but it was clear to Talia that the dragon wasn't really making an effort to pass as human.

"Here is your contract," they said. "I expect you to read it thoroughly." Their voice reminded Talia of the time she'd gone to see a play and tried to sneak out of the box afterward so she could properly show her appreciation for the lead actor's baritone. They'd caught her, of course, because Talia-Toren, great deity herself, forbid that a woman who is going to eventually be someone's queen and wife have any knowledge at all about the art of the bedroom. Talia settled in to read the agreement.

The dragon was right about their name being unpronounceable. She'd studied the writing system of this country in anticipation of her marriage, but the script that composed the dragon's name wasn't anything at all that she recognized.

"If I have questions," she asked, "who should I address them to? Calling you dragon would be insulting, and," she scanned a part of the contract, "we're supposed to be doing this on a monthly basis, it would be nice to have a name."

The dragon snorted. "Most of your questions will be answered by reading the document."

"Fine," Talia said and started reading more intently, her hands writing notes in the air as she read. When she finished, she looked up. "I still have questions."

"Oh?" the dragon said, clearly amused.

"Yes," Talia said. "How terrified of you were the fools who signed this?"

The dragon roared in laughter. "I do not think they were particularly concerned with the terms, so long as the killing and destruction stopped. My ancestor was even more feared than I am."

"I can see that," Talia said, "but your ancestor wasn't particularly brilliant with his negotiating skills, either."

The dragon smiled at Talia, a gleam in their eye that Talia hoped meant they was intrigued, and not that they had decided, after all, to roast her and demand another queen. "Your predecessors did not appear to have much difficulty with this contract."

Talia shook her head. "My predecessors were probably chosen for their beauty and carefully screened to make sure they didn't have any intelligence hiding behind it. They probably did what they were told and scurried away when it was done."

"My predecessor often said as much," the dragon said. "Entertaining, and often teachable on how to maximize the pleasure for everyone involved, but not always the best companions."

Talia nodded. "Well, I should probably make sure that I fulfill this month's obligations," she said, laying down on the bed next to the dragon. "None of that, though," she said, pointing at the dragon beginning to unbutton the shirt they were wearing.

"Your contract says—"

"—that I will lay with you one day a month. So here we will lay, together, in the same bed, and then tomorrow, I will go back with my party to the castle and be their queen again until next month. The contract gives you no rights to anything more, so if you want more, you're going to have to ask."

This time the dragon smiled, the incisors of their teeth looking much more like fangs than human teeth. "Is that so? Neither of our predecessors seemed to think this was the case."

"Your predecessor had no reason to being it up, since they were benefiting from the arrangement, and, as we have already established, my predecessors weren't smart enough to figure it out. If you want something more from me, we're going to renegotiate the agreement. Until then, I will lay here with you, as the contract demands, but I won't give you anything more."

The dragon's smile widened. Talia hoped she'd read them correctly, but there was still the possibility that her reign was going to be unceremoniously cut short.

"Oh, _finally_ ," they said. "How did you manage to convince them you were a vapid, stupid thing long enough for you to get married?"

Talia exhaled the breath she'd been holding and sat up. "Because the alternative was letting their soldiers run all over my lands, destroy them, and then get married to an angry, spiteful version of who I was being offered to. He's not bad-looking, but he's never been told that there's more to being king than getting to swive whomever you want and to invade who doesn't give you what you want."

"Ah," the dragon nearly sang in understanding, which sent a very pleasant hum straight to Talia's brain. "We should commence our negotiations swiftly, then, for I feel there will be much to get through before either of us will enjoy the fruits of our labor."

Talia grinned in response. "Let's begin. You probably want to start with the 'lay' language, don't you?"

* * *

Talia yawned. They'd been at it until the moon was shining in the window, and while they had found some fairly easy places to make agreements, concessions, and wording, there were still several parts that were difficult going between them.

"Why does it have to be the queen, though? You could have your pick of any of the court, or make some ridiculous demand like 'the prettiest woman in the kingdom' and force the king to come up with an arbitrary system of beauty that some clever girl could figure out how to manipulate to her advantage." 

"Which you would, no doubt, enjoy," the dragon replied. "except for the part where you would inevitably be put in charge of it, and thus have to deal with all of the selection and the 'pettiest of petty gossip', as you put it. Why would I want someone who thinks so highly of her own beauty that she would never deign to share my bed? Many of my predecessors wouldn't…didn't…care, but I would prefer someone who actually enjoys themselves, rather than someone who does it out of duty, responsibility, or even pity. And," they added, wrinkling their nose, "unless all of the future queens are as willing to risk a short reign as you are, whatever we come up with will have to be agreeable to them as well."

Talia's look soured immediately. "And probably to the king. I can't imagine him agreeing to whatever we come up with because he trusts his wife to have successfully negotiated something of mutual benefit with a dragon." She yawned again.

"Go to sleep," the dragon said. "We still have to do our laying together." Talia snickered, but slipped out of enough clothing to be comfortable and tucked herself into the bed, the dragon laying on top of the covers. They'd be quite a nice heat source in the cold season, Talia thought to herself before dozing off.

When she woke, the dragon had already left. A timid knock on the door announced the return of her retinue. Shrugging on the clothes she had shed, Talia smiled brightly as she opened the door, the

"Go," the dragon, back in their full-sized form, rumbled. "You will return in one month's time."

Talia hid her smile as her accompanying party rushed as much as they felt prudent to usher her out of the dragon's cave. As she rode back, Talia turned over the situation in her mind. She'd managed to stall, and the dragon had been amused at her, but was it just amusement that had kept her alive, or had the dragon really been interested in making a new contract? They had a sharp mind, certainly, and that was appealing, and their voice was pleasant to listen to, but they were still a dragon. Would it ever be possible to have a relationship that didn't involve a lot of difference in power?

There were a few points of law she would have to research when she got back to the castle before their next meeting, but she was looking forward to resuming the negotiations.

Just as darkness was threatening on the horizon, Talia returned to the royal castle. The king was there to greet her return, a broad smile on his face.

"My queen, back unharmed," he said to her. "Did you have a pleasant time?"

"For some time, I thought he was going to eat me, your Majesty," Talia replied.

"You must tell me about it, Talia," the king said, having found yet another way to mispronounce her name, despite all the times she had attempted to correct him during their "courtship." He offered his arm to her, his eyes narrowing at her when she waited until after she finished smoothing her riding clothes to take it. To the crowd, they both projected the idea of a couple that were effective together, but Talia knew she would have to endure slights from him for a week about her ingratitude. She had weathered his tantrums before, often by busying herself in the minutia of running the kingdom that kept her away from him. Talia wondered whether she could find a way of writing a clause obligating the dragon to publicly burn the king to ash if she was an incompetent ruler, before dismissing the idea because "incompetent" was too vague a term. Something more specific might fit in its place, though.

As they crossed the threshold for the royal bedchamber, the king closed and locked the door behind him. Talia knew that the king would be eager to have her back, but she had hoped that he would at least wait until she had removed the dust of the road from herself before he grunted his way to his own satisfaction over her absence. At least _some_ of her advisers had taken pity on her and told her about what to expect from the marriage bed.

"I still have the road—" she began, before the king's fist crashed into her cheek and sent her sprawling to the bed.

"What are you—?!" she shouted as he seized her by the traveling braid she had put her hair in and threw her roughly to the ground. She was stunned from the impact of her head against the ground.

"Now that the filthy beast has had his way with you," the king said, kicking her in the side, "I will treat you like the whore you are." 

Talia rolled to her feet, avoiding another kick, but the king was on her again, striking her other cheek to put her back on the bed. The king certainly seemed to be enjoying himself, from the look on his face. Talia had seen that look before on him, at the negotiations that had sent Talia from her homeland to be his wife and queen. She'd known from that look he would be cruel and terrible if he were opposed, but while it wasn't surprising to her, it was unexpected for him to be so open about his contempt.

Having shed some of his clothing, the king noticed her looking at him and stepped in again to strike her. Scrabbling for space from him, Talia's knee thrust itself into his genitals before his fist connected again with her. Bellowing in rage and pain, the king's look of amusement hardened into one of violence, and he snatched his belt knife from the belt and advanced again on her, slashing and stabbing at whatever of hers looked to be in range. The king put several holes and stripes in her traveling dress and the bed, but thankfully missed striking her. Wreathed in the glow of the fireplace of the room, Talia saw the face of the king when someone denied him a thing he desired. It reminded her of when she'd seen him after he'd set fire to the fields outside her castle and methodically slaughtered the town, carving them so those that did not immediately perish beheld the sight of their guts spilling out of their bodies, as a threat of what he would do if they did not surrender.

Talia knew she would not survive being around him long in this state. The terrified princess who would do anything to keep her people alive demanded that she apologize, throw herself on his mercy, take whatever indignity he wished to visit upon her, so long as he would stop trying to kill her. She would beg and live and learn how not to anger him so, and if anyone gossiped about the queen's countenance, she would ensure they did not say anything in the presence of the king.

Talia of the Blue Lake would do anything to stop the killing, believing that would be the most effective way of keeping her people alive. Her Majesty, Queen Talia, First of Her Name, Grand Lady of the Seven Sisters, Monarch of the Deep Mountains, and Protector and Friend of the Plains of Everlasting Bounty, on the other hand, had a duty to protect her people from all who would harm them, and that included a king who would kill her because she had done her duty to keep the people alive from a dragon. Backed into a corner of the bed by the king's attacks, Talia seized what she feared was her last opportunity and launched herself, catching the king in the face with her boots and driving his head into the wooden corner of the bed. She heard something crack on the impact, but she could not stop to see what had lost in the battle between the king and his bed. Two swift motions had the door open, and Talia ran, intending to get as much distance between herself and the king before she was seized and dragged back before him to die. Despite her certainty that pursuit was only a step behind her, Talia reached the stables and found a horse ready to ride, and despite her clear distress, no-one stopped her as she rode away from the palace, back toward the one place that she felt would be safe for her to be.


	2. Renegotiations

"And so you came to me," the dragon rumbled, "believing I would be the one creature in the kingdom who would offer you sanctuary from justice at the hands of the king you killed."

"Yes," Talia said.

She had fled not knowing, but the news traveled faster than her. The soldiers were slower, thankfully, but never so much slower as to give her much rest before she arrived at the cave.

The dragon harumphed.

Talia heard the jangle of tack and the clank of armor and ran to the side of the entrance cave, pressing herself to the wall so she would not be easily seen by her pursuers.

"Wyrm!" the leader of the troop demanded as he entered the dragon's cave. "By the order of the treaty signed between yourself and our king, deliver the traitor and murderess Talia to us to face justice."

"Do you intend to try her, then?" the dragon asked.

"She is guilty of regicide and will be put to the sword as an example," the captain said. "There is no need for any trial."

The dragon seemed to consider this, for as much as Talia could read their expression, and then, almost lazily, swung his front claws through the captain's space. For a half of a moment, Talia thought the dragon had missed, but the reality of the act swiftly came to light as the captain's head separated from his shoulders and the rest of his body began to crumble. Talia had seen her share of dying soldiers, most of them falling to the plain and failing to get up again, but she could only find herself thinking about how little the blood moved from where it had been, even though there were entire sections of the captain sliding and falling their way to the ground with wet slaps. Until the smell of bile and the half-digested morning meal the captain had in him reached her, and then there was little else she could think of as his remains settled and the blood finally began to run and pool in a great expanse around what remained.

One of the soldiers flanking the captain drew his sword and raised his shield, charging the dragon, as if he believed he would be spared a similar fate from his captain. Talia smothered the human pity that arose at seeing him running to his death, reminding herself that this was a man who intended to kill her because she had prioritized her own life over that of the king. And that king had meant to kill her, too, as soon as she had demanded that "wife" and "queen" meant more than concubine.

" _Stay_ ," the dragon said, as if he were addressing an ill-trained whelp in need of discipline. The soldier froze, perfectly balanced between one stride and the next. Talia tried to look at the other soldier and see if he was also affected, but the dragon's command held her fast as well, eyes locked on the fool who had thought he could slay a dragon by himself in a rage.

Positioning himself and breathing deeply, the dragon exhaled a gout of flame that lashed Talia's eyes with light and the rest of her body with heat. Talia willed herself to close her eyes, to shield herself from the scorch, but even the instincts that would keep her unharmed failed to produce any movement.

Mercifully, it was soon done, and as Talia's vision returned to her, her eyes beheld the soldier's armor glowing, a signal fire lit for the world to see, brilliant beyond any polishing. What consequence this would have was not immediately apparent to Talia's eyes, but her nose soon gave her the clue she needed.

As the smell of burning flesh replaced that of the captain's breakfast, Talia began to see the tiny movements of armor, of shifting and sliding, collapsing as the glowing armor burnt through the first layer of skin and began to work in the deeper layers underneath. The soldier's expression remained frozen in a rictus of anger, but Talia had no doubt that if he could scream, the agony of his armor slowly consuming him would echo to the capital, carrying a warning on the wind. As it was, she could only watch the slow progress of armor melting man, accompanied by the sizzling sound of his body's resistance failing and the smell of hot metal and flesh. Talia began to hope that the helmet would sink below the line of his eyes as a small mercy before they, too, burst and added to the growing pile of viscera on the floor of the cavern. Cracking sounds joined the hissing as the metal found bone and began to work its way through.

Talia's eyes had watered and flowed freely from the flash, but now she wanted to scream and cry for the soldier whose life had long since fled in agony. With a final crack, the bones and armor of the soldier clattered to the ground.

Talia, able to move again, brushed the tears from her eyes to see what remained. The dragon swung their face to the remaining soldier, who made no move to unsheath his own sword, nor to flee. 

"What need do I have of treaties signed by a dead king and enforced by dead men?" they said.

The soldier did not speak. Whether by fear or wisdom, Talia did not know.

"Return to who leads you," the dragon continued, "and tell them to pray that Talia, the queen you discarded, is wise and forgiving, for it is her treaty that will determine whether you live or die."

The soldier inclined his head to indicate his understanding, then spun upon his heel and retreated to collect what remained to bring back.

When he was no longer in sight, the dragon fixed their eyes on Talia.

"I have decided to grant you sanctuary," they said, "until our negotiations are completed. I will wait for you in the room where we negotiated last." Turning from her, the dragon disappeared into the tunnels. Talia ran for the room she had so recently been in, fear of the dragon changing their mind if she were late spurring her to speed. The dragon was waiting for her, in their more handsome form, the unfinished treaty document spread out on the table before them.

"You are cruel," Talia said.

"I did not represent myself otherwise," they replied evenly. "But then again, so are you, Talia of the Blue Lake. You have left a country without either king or queen that has a _very angry_ dragon in it. Whatever bloodshed and hardship comes next is almost certainly going to be laid at your feet. Do you care about what you have done?" they mocked.

"And yet, you have placed me in the position of having the power to decide the entire kingdom's fate. And yours," Talia replied, the full import of the dragon's words becoming clear to her. "It seems you are as good a negotiator as your ancestors," she said, stifling the laugh that threatened to escape. "Why bind yourself in this way?"

"Because I chose you, Talia. Others accepted what they were given, but you, _you_ , I chose."

Talia recoiled. "And you think to court me with torturous deaths!"

"They will not try to interrupt our negotiations now," the dragon said.

Talia fumed. They were right. Talia of the Blue Lake hadn't been able to accept that death was necessary to protect a people, because she could not conceive of someone who would volunteer to die, no matter what was offered in exchange. Queen Talia had deluded herself into believing that she was willing to die for the right cost, but instead others had paid her price, again.

Talia straightened herself. Then, with every inch of the regal bearing she has been taught as a princess who would become queen, crossed the distance and sat at the remaining chair. She stared at the dragon across the table. Mere days ago, the man she had been married to had shown himself a monster. And so had the monster she had fancied as a change of pace. Yet, here she was, with the fate of the man's kingdom and the monster's heart in her hands. Would she crush one of them and treasure the other?

" _If_ you hope for me to accept your choice, and perhaps even choose you in return, then we must work to ensure this queendom exalts those it has previously ignored."

She would.

The dragon smiled.


End file.
